Build & fly paper airplanes for Red Bull glory

Brad Tharpe, a Marquette freshman from St. Louis, takes a test flight with his paper airplane during the Red Bull Paper Wings event last year at the Eagle Ballroom in Milwaukee.

The Red Bull Paper Wings competition sails into town March 3 at the Rave, challenging college students to show off their paper airplane engineering and low-altitude piloting skills for fortune and glory.

The mission for local students, should they choose to accept it, is to build paper airplanes to compete in one of three categories: distance, airtime and aerobatics. The top five fliers nationwide in each category win a trip to Austria to represent America at the Red Bull Paper Wings World Finals May 4 to 5. Qualifiers are scheduled to be held at more than 600 college campuses worldwide, including at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus on March 3. Similar to last year, interested players can sign up online ahead of time or on site the day of the event, Red Bull says.

In addition to the competition at the Rave, 2401 W. Wisconsin Ave., there will be music, beverages at the bars, televisions for the Marquette University Senior Day, and Asher Roth concert following the event.